William Blake's prophetic art and poetry
Copyright 2005 David Whitmarsh-Knight. This blog is an important component of www.thefourzoas.com and the ideas within copyrighted. No part can be used without unambiguous and specific permission from the author of this web-site. My thanks to Jody Shipley for his freely given web work...his generosity and commitment to the enhancement of his students and friends is acknowledged and deeply appreciated.

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Wednesday, 30 April 2008

I have re-introduced the search lines to the front of the blog. the first point i'd like to make is that the 100 Plates of Jerusalem, and the line-by-line analysis therein can be individually called up in my website thefourzoas.com

The search lines are here for research students and interested Blake readers..............or those who want Blake's The Four Zoas 'explained' or Jerusalem 'explained' in detail... or want to understand Blake's art more profoundly. Blake's art is embedded in his myths and thus his myth, symbol and story not understood, Blake's art is also poorly understood. My studies are about making sense of Blake's mythology. his myth, also thought of as his sublime allegory, (wittreich) has to be realised in the perceptions of readers and viewers....in a like manner, myth and symbol is necessary to realise the iconic, typological and allegorical meanings of classical or renaissance art. likewise the geometry of composition is typically sacred such as in the theology of the ikon in bizantine art, its sacred geometry of internal symmetries and colours, and from the earliest, sacred architecture...and that means the indigenous circle builders and their clarity of astronomical alignments and so time.

an essential methodological principle is that there are many swirls of myths in Blake's mythology of Albion's fall and redemption... dynamic 'vortices' involved in multi inter engagements in multi complexities... foucault like vortices of them all as a whole in unity...such are the torus-like vortices of Albion's inner collapse... and there is no final definition until Plates 94-100.

Blake's depictions of mental energies are profound. It is a commonplace amongst Blake's audiences and analytic thinkers that he develops a causal cosmology of mental energies, events and materiality that is of extraordinary value to to our understanding of human consciousness itself. his value is enhanced by his universality...though he is christian, his readers need not be.

Though he sees a four-fold unity with Christ, others may see that Blake symbolises a 'god's eye' concept of time and space such outlined by polkinghorne(I discuss this in the opening chapters to Jerusalem Explained). Jungian and Freudian critics have long seen Blake's work as revealing that which otherwise is unrevealed even unconscious... his impact upon art is formidable. Blake's remarkable poetic re-creations of mind and processes of dream and waking self-revelation are known as very valuable... god or no god so to speak.

Saturday, 26 April 2008

To the Southwark of The Globe, The Swan and The Fortune, the bear pit and the taverns and happyhouses and the the Blakeless Bride. The genius of Southwark? The cleric failed to see the chances are few for the pounding heartbeat of self kenosis in art and love and life in Southwark, and the jewel of Blake's hymn, Jerusalem.

no flower once picked grows back however strong the stem

her got done too, sent backfailed to meet the something ...Off the list nowBreath-bated and clogged-ears in the charity camps

Banjos in the tunnels by the air blastscloth caps tin cups coinsand a wild-eyed child with a dummyin a crowd of kneecaps and pounding feet.

Airless hairless and eyelessand groaning in Gaza the lot of usNot a temple to think onnor jaw-bone to recall.

There's an asteroid on its way as big as GibraltarGalileo's under house arrestCrime pays, rules taxans superheated lava fills the caverns left by gas wells

the round glass circles of the cathedral rosesand grounded mazes give hopethere's rumours of oxygen outside the windows of the worldstars do last longer than poverty, says the vatican, Infallibly.

But eternity's an idea that experiences nothingNothing of the bone-cold concrete dirtof a rough shaveless lifein the midst of surplus waste

Saturday, 19 April 2008

this a fourth verse about the cleric of Southwark who banned Blake's Jerusalem, Blake saw Jerusalem as the bride of Christ which is a reasonable model for any one... methinks.Now the disappointment is honey mooned into the future life of the bride i pen a further poemlives about the young and the struggle of it ...

psychic clay not to be mined or thrown on a wheel

it's hard to keep faithin the coffee-grind and sweaty hair of cappuccino time,for a hard-breathing-clear eyed idealistwith firm thighs and a pert blouse that bounces

a teacher who like her and a third world feelingfor eye treatment radio and a well for village lifeprey to the faith-in-loving lyricsthe truly lazy offer

two bedrooms more and a larger lawnhabits like parking in front lead lined windowseyes reddening in shadows and swirl of curtain, andwell-fed waiting crying poor-mouth to make taste rich

the pretty girlfingers straight as a check out keyblinks back the long grimed dayand the longer struggle of a loving heart

she knows how long it really takesto dig a veggie patch on a wet spring dayand the Kremlin tower of a leek flowerworking to give a kitchen the smell of heaven

and granny's old mahogany bedthe thump of life they all said she loved

Tuesday, 15 April 2008

She never saw beauty she was put awayfolded like linen with skins of ironmagicked memories celibate idealsand angels dancing up and down laddersmassaging the conscience of the world

The older we are the closer to timelessness,Helen's lovely legs have yet to reach full stretchnot yet closed in the mercy of an unseeing eye.

Surprising where the last ditch stands arewhere certain people are that's wherewho simply fight until they simply die.

I don't wish to pass through any of your doorsshe told each keeper of the keys in turn passing out the gatesby the smell of food tables and cowls bent forwardaround her the temple keeperscrouched like stone lions waiting for Alexander.

Saturday, 12 April 2008

Buzz buzz the see-sawback and thrust slip-slide-slip-sliderock-a-billy trombone callto the glittering fantasia of young flesh and belly bouncers of dancein the bumble stumble of the gene circus

Do you really want the fast food job that's every job?want to sell and sell and chime the hour for a clocked amount?while higher and higher the bonus for the bossin the crime regulatedtick-tock number flash of taxation legislation

Do you really need this crap as the pretty girl's toothpastelarger than a bill board's faithlessnessgives you the weather?Without god sex or money there is only the weatherand the melting of the icecaps

The higher the rank the easierthe sun-tanned cock-a-doodle-doo of glad stock tidingspaddling down the morning rivers of laundered plentycrowing excellence is the greatest threat tothe survival of the richest

So my bonused beautiesbubbling in banquets and stemmed glassescheck out the inside run of long crossed legsin the snake and ladder cocktailsof the davy jones casino